I just posted this over on the SoftTH forum and thought it might help here too. I was looking on both to get Mass Effect up and running. I've just registered to post hoping this will help someone else in need.
Greetings all. I was searching for a solution to Mass Effect multi monitor setup and eventually got here. I know this is an old topic, but I love the Mass Effect trilogy and wanted to play it again now that I have my 3 monitor setup. I have everything running smooth with no issues (very minor, see bottom of post) on Windows 10 and figured someone else might come across this and use the advice.
To begin with, my rig is i7 processor, 16G ram, 256G SSD, 3TBHD, Nvidia 980, and 3 different monitors (well 1 ultra-wide and 2 regular) so SoftTH is mandatory for me as Nvidia Surround only wants to work with the same resolution of all monitors.
I have 3 LG monitors. One ultra-wide 29" 2560x1080 as my main (center) monitor and 2 23" 1920x1080 as my left and right. So in total 6400x1080. The physical dimensions are near exact for height, I only had to shim the stands to get them all sitting level to each other. You'll have to do the math for your own setup but once you input your specific specs, it should be running fine.
Prerequisites: SoftTH, Flawless Widescreen, Mass Effect
1. Once you have the 3 programs, place the SoftTH d3d9.dll in Mass Effect>Binaries
2. Run Mass Effect to generate the config.SoftTHconfig and exit the game
3. Open your generated config.SoftTHconfig with notepad (or Notepad++ Highly Recommended)
4. I have edited my config.SoftTHconfig to reflect my monitor arrangement. This is where you'll have to do the math and play around a bit to get your own setup to work to your liking. This is what I have for my setup and should be similar for others.
[main]
renderResolution=6580x1080
nonlocalFormat=RGB16D
keepComposition=0
smoothing=1
debugD3D=0
zClear=1
vsync=0
tripleBuffer=0
screenshotFormat=jpg
dllPathD3D9=auto
dllPathDXGI=auto
dllPathD3D11=auto
[overrides]
forceResolution=0
antialiasing=0
processAffinity=0
FOVForceHorizontal=0
FOVForceVertical=0
[debug]
compatibleIB=0
compatibleTex=0
compatibleVB=0
enableVBQuirk=0
[head_primary]
sourceRect=2010,0,2560,1080
screenMode=2560x1080
[head_1]
; Autodetected as \\.\DISPLAY1 at NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
devID=1
sourceRect=4660,0,1920,1080
transportResolution=1920x1080
transportMethod=auto
noSync=0
fpsLimit=0
[head_2]
; Autodetected as \\.\DISPLAY3 at NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
devID=2
sourceRect=0,0,1920,1080
transportResolution=1920x1080
transportMethod=auto
noSync=0
fpsLimit=0
This is how I came to the numbers I put in. RenderResolution=6580x1080 (6400x1080 plus compensation of 90px x2 for the bezels of 3 monitors 6400+90+90=6580)
Head 2 (My Left Monitor) SourceRect=0,0,1920,1080. This is where SoftTH begins rendering the total 6580x1080 on the left side of all monitors.
Head Primary (My Center Monitor) SourceRect=2010,0,2560,1080. So it is 1920 (Left Monitor) +90(Bezel)=2010.
Head 1 (My Right Monitor) SourceRect=4660,0,1920,1080. 1920(Left)+90(Bezel)+2560(Center)+90(Bezel)=4660.
5. Open up the DefaultEngine.ini (Origin\MassEffect\BioGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini) with notepad
6. Find and edit the lines to match the resolution for your setup (mine is 6580x1080)
StartupResolutionX=6580
StartupResolutionY=1080
7. Open Flawless Widescreen
8. Download the Mass Effect Plug-in
9. Got to Settings>Configuration
10. Select Display Detection from the left.
11. Check the "Enable Display Detection Override" box (I couldn't get Mass Effect to run right without this)
12. (These are my settings. Adjust yours to match your monitor setup)
Width: 6580
Height: 1080
Horizontal display count: 3
Vertical Display Count: 1
Hud Width: 1920 (I've tried to up this to 2560 but it won't work for me. Seems Mass Effect only likes to generate the HUD with FlawlessWidescreen at 1920 or the rest gets cut off)
Hud Height: 1080
Hud X: 2330 (I took 1920"Left"+90"Bezel"+ {[2560"Center"-1920"HUD"=640]/2"To center on main monitor"=320} So, 1920+90+320=2330.
Hud Y: 0
13. Save Changes
14. Start up Mass Effect
Hopefully everything went smooth and you have a clean gaming experience. I haven't noticed any issues at all with this setup. Cut scenes run smooth. Some cinema scenes look a bit blocky, like they are zoomed in a little too far, but nothing game breaking. HUD works fine. Menu is fine. Sniper rifle zoom works, but you'll only get the overlay on the center HUD area, but nothing game breaking.
I hope this helped someone else having the same issue I did with this in the beginning. Good luck and happy gaming
I've included some screens so you can get an idea. The black bars are the bezel compensations